Cloud is usually reserved and withdrawn and keeps to himself most of the time, not associating with those he does not know very well, but this is due to having lost two very close friends of his, Zack Fair and Aeris Gainsborough. Zack had been his best friend throughout SOLDIER and was himself a First Class Soldier, and Aeris Cloud had been in love with before she had been murdered by Sephiroth.
However, he will end up a very loyal friend if you happen to crack through his protective shell, although you would have to work very hard at cracking his shell to get him to open up to you more. Not only that, he does tend to joke around every so often with his friends, though you would have to catch him at a good moment to be able to encounter this.
He is a fierce warrior in battle as well, although unfortunately for him, he tends to do most of the work in battles, but those that are his friends do help him out when they can.
In Final Fantasy VII, Cloud is introduced as a mercenary and former member of SOLDIER, 1st Class, an elite military unit operating under the Shinra Company. Presented at the game's start as apathetic to anything unrelated to his job, Cloud's blasé attitude towards the goals of AVALANCHE, a resistance group fighting against Shinra, and the threat posed to the planet causes conflict with the other characters, and his background produces misgivings as to Cloud's motivations and trustworthiness. Cloud, meanwhile, takes pride in his past, confident in his abilities as a "former member of SOLDIER." Despite appearing detached to members of AVALANCHE in the game's introductory sequence, Cloud does display moments of camaraderie, some depending on the player's choices. When confronted by his childhood friend and AVALANCHE member, Tifa, Cloud agrees to keep his boyhood promise to protect her, continuing his AVALANCHE membership despite never having become a famous hero. Following the player's departure from Midgar, Cloud is appointed group leader by the other members of the party, much to the chagrin of Barret, AVALANCHE's original leader.
In interacting with Aerith, a flower girl wanted by Shinra and sole survivor of an ancient race known as the Cetra, Cloud's character is further expanded upon. He shows increased signs of good-natured humor and protectiveness, as opposed to his antagonistic use of sarcasm with Barret or comparative coolness to everyone other than Tifa that he has previously spoken with. Aerith, in turn, reciprocates this attitude, offering her assistance to lead Cloud back to Sector 7 and to rescue Tifa in Sector 6, despite Cloud being her bodyguard and the danger present. Aerith also inquires about Cloud's romantic life, and, depending on the player's dialogue choices and actions, could be one of several characters to take Cloud on a "date" at the Golden Saucer, an enormous amusement park, along with Tifa, and less seriously, Barret and optional character Yuffie. This love triangle aspect between Cloud, Tifa and Aerith is primarily focused on in the first disc, and at times is used to humorous effect.
When the player arrives at the inn in the town of Kalm, Cloud narrates to the group his history with Sephiroth, a legendary member of SOLDIER and the game's primary antagonist. According to Cloud, the two were "war buddies," having worked together on previous missions prior to the one in Nibelheim. Having joined SOLDIER to emulate Sephiroth, Cloud states in the flashback that he signs up for "big missions" whenever they become available, as the war had already ended and thus his chances for fame. When Sephiroth, upon discovering documents surrounding the nature of Jenova and his birth, mistakes himself to be a Cetra[49] and razes Nibelheim, Cloud chases after him. Finding Tifa wounded by Sephiroth at the Mt. Nibel Mako Reactor, Cloud discovers Sephiroth releasing Jenova, an extraterrestrial life-form and Sephiroth's "mother," from imprisonment. Cloud relates to the group that he then confronted Sephiroth, although he is unable to remember the events directly following.
In fact, these events did not occur as Cloud describes; rather, they are an amalgamation of Cloud's actual past (as a member of the Shinra army who failed to enter SOLDIER) along with his friend Zack's own past, mixed with memories gleaned from Tifa's mind, created out of a combination of shame, Jenova cells and manipulation by Sephiroth. The effects of this self-fabrication are made noticeable to the player prior to Cloud's discovery of the truth—Cloud, at mention of names from the past or moments related thereto, will experience a brief flashback and collapse momentarily, suffering from apparent physical pain, and visual and audio cues are given to indicate discrepancies. It is not until after he and Tifa fall into the Lifestream that he, with her encouragement, can piece his past back together, and restore his own personality from underneath the amalgam where he had subconsciously hidden it, and dismisses Sephiroth's deceit that he is an artificially-constructed Sephiroth-clone.
In the CGI film Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, Cloud, two years following the conclusion of Final Fantasy VII, lives with Tifa in the city of Edge, working as a delivery boy for the "Strife Delivery Service" that Tifa set up in her new bar, having given up his life as a mercenary. Staying with them is Marlene, Barret's adopted daughter, and Denzel, an orphan with a rampant and deadly disease called Geostigma. When confronted by Tifa following the disappearance of Denzel and Marlene, it is revealed that Cloud suffers from the effects of Geostigma, and he responds that he is unfit to protect his new family and other friends. However, when urged by Tifa to let go of the past, Cloud sets out for the Forgotten City in search for the children, and confronts Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo, genetic remnants of Sephiroth left behind before he could diffuse into the Lifestream completely. In confronting Kadaj, the battle takes them back to Aerith's church, where the Lifestream-influenced water cures Cloud of his Geostigma. Kadaj later merges with the remnants of Jenova, causing Sephiroth to be reborn. When Sephiroth is once again defeated, he dissipates, leaving a dying Kadaj in his place. At the movie's end, Cloud reunites with his friends, sees Aerith and Zack and assures them that he will be fine.
